WR installs heavier concrete sleepers to boost Rajdhani, Vande Bharat speeds

The work will enable the Rajdhani, Vande Bharat and Shatabdi trains to reach their potential and run at semi-high-speeds of 160 kmph

MUMBAI: The speed of trains matters. But what matters is also tracks and sleepers that clutch the rail lines to operate at high speeds. This strengthening of infrastructure is currently under way on Western Railway (WR), which is installing heavier, deeper and sturdier cement sleepers on the fast corridor and the 5th-6th rail lines in Mumbai. The work will enable the Rajdhani, Vande Bharat and Shatabdi trains to reach their potential and run at semi-high-speeds of 160 kmph.

WR installs heavier concrete sleepers to boost train speeds

Indian Railways is gearing up to carry out this speed upgrade on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi route. Currently capped at 130 kmph, once the speed increases, passengers can anticipate a reduction of 30 to 45 minutes of travel time on this route. Currently, the Rajdhani, the fastest Mumbai-New Delhi train, covers the distance of 1,386 km in nearly 15 hours and 45 minutes.

To upgrade train speeds, the WR authorities are replacing the old cement-concrete sleepers—the white-coloured logs on which rail tracks are bolted—with new ones. This work is under way in patches on the 5th and 6th lines (which will segregate local from long-distance trains) and fast lines on the Churchgate-Virar route. The authorities are using a specialised USA-manufactured track-relaying train (TRT) to fit the renewed track with precise spacing and a smooth bed of stones called ballasts which arrived in March 2023.

The work done by the TRT machine per mega block is equivalent to 300 labourers. Senior officials from WR said that the railways would renew and install 3.92 lakh concrete sleepers on a length of approximately 236 track km in the suburban section between Churchgate and Virar. This work is under way on the Andheri-Borivali stretch.

“Till June end, we have renewed 95,000 concrete sleepers, covering a length of around 57 track km,” said a WR official. “This work is being done during the night. The TRT machine is expected to be worked for another two years in Mumbai to cover the entire Churchgate-Virar route and complete the renewal and replacement of all the concrete sleepers.”

The new sleepers have a depth of 230 mm while the existing ones have a depth of 160 mm. Sources said that the weight of the new sleepers was 25 percent more than the existing ones, which are a lot shallower as well.

Almost a decade ago, the power supplied to trains had a 1,500-volt Direct Current (DC) system of traction, and so in the 1990s, specially designed shallow concrete sleepers were laid. After the conversion to Alternating Current (AC), the height of the overhead equipment (OHE) cables has become flexible and can be increased, and so the sturdier and deeper concrete sleepers are being installed.